Tagged With: Fall
Kala Masala Skillet Cornbread
This savory cornbread knocked our collective socks off at first bite. Our Kala Masala spice blend is a complex one, and that complexity of flavor transfers easily to the skillet cornbread. There’s a tiny bit of heat from some guajillo chiles in the blend that is balanced perfectly by a healthy dose of toasted coconut for sweetness. Try it with a fish, lentil or vegetable soup for maximum enjoyment!
Cast Iron is essential for crusty cornbread!
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Place a 10-inch cast iron skillet in the oven to get hot while you make the batter.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, salt, baking powder, baking soda and Kala Masala. In a small bowl, whisk the buttermilk, egg and the ¼ cup melted butter together.
- Take the hot cast iron skillet out of the oven, and add in the butter. Swirl it around until the butter starts to melt, being sure to tilt the pan to coat the sides and bottom evenly.
- Pour the wet ingredients in the dry ingredients and mix quickly, just until moistened. Do not overmix. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake the cornbread until it’s golden brown, about 20 minutes. Take the pan out of the oven, and try to let it cool for a few minutes before you dive into it. Cut into 8 wedges.
Heavenly Hawaij Soup
This decadent mushroom soup wowed us at our last tasting. The fusion of the aromatic cardamom, turmeric and saffron in the essential Yemenese blend combined with mushrooms and cream to make one heavenly bowl of soup. We added Porcinis for a meaty richness and additional depth of flavor. This exotic twist on an American classic is perfect as a soup shot for a holiday party or on those chilly winter nights.
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Ingredients
Instructions
- In a Dutch oven, melt the butter on medium heat. Saute the garlic and onions until slightly browned. Add the flour, and mix well. (It will be thick.) Add in the Porcinis, Criminis, stock, wine and Hawaij. Mix well. Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat to medium low, and let simmer for about 20 minutes.
- Working in batches, puree the soup in a blender or food processor until smooth. Once the soup is pureed, return it to the pot and add the heavy cream. Simmer for about 10 minutes, to reduce the cream a bit. Add the juice of 1/2 of a lemon, then taste for salt and add what you need. If you feel the soup is too thick, add more stock. If you feel it needs to be thicker, continue to reduce it on low until it’s at the consistency you prefer. Serve with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
Spice Up a Holiday Classic!
Sri Lankan Curry has none of the turmeric that we often expect in our curries, but is made up of a melange of warm, sweet spices. Each component is individually toasted before being mixed in perfect proportion, yielding an intensely dark and aromatic blend, so intoxicating that most customers who give it a whiff, can’t leave without it. To answer the call for alternative uses of this irresistible blend, we adapted a very classic Southern sweet potato pie filling to feature it, and we are so proud of the result! The sweet potatoes are a perfect canvas for the deep, toasted flavors of the spice, with just a pop of orange zest here and there for contrast. The crust is a dense, almost shortbread-esque shell, made special by the chopped pecans within. This pie is sure to please all who grace your autumn table!
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Ingredients
Instructions
- To make the dough: Whisk together nuts, flour, sugar, salt, and zest in a large bowl. Using your fingertips, work butter in to the dry ingredients until the largest pieces are the size of peas.
- Make a well in the center of the dough. Whisk yolk and egg in a small bowl, and pour into the well. Gradually draw flour mixture into center, kneading until combined. Shape dough into a disk. Wrap in plastic, and refrigerate overnight (up to 3 days).
- Let dough come to room temperature; roll out on a lightly floured surface to 1/4 inch thick. Fit dough into a 9 inch spring form pan, pressing and patching so that dough reaches up sides of the plate. Chill in freezer while you make the filling.
- To make the filling: Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Wash and peel the sweet potatoes, and pierce them in several places with a fork. Place on a baking sheet lined with tin foil or parchment paper, and roast for 45-55 minutes or until very tender. Puree in a food processor, mash with a potato masher or in a stand mixer, using the whisk attachment.
- Combine dry ingredients in small bowl.
- Beat sweet potatoes in medium bowl, add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition
- Add sugar, beat to incorporate
- Add Sri Lankan Curry, milk, butter, and vanilla, and beat at low speed to incorporate everything evenly and well.
- Pour filling in to prepared crust, and bake at 350 degrees until puffed and firm, 40-50 minutes.
Besar Cranberry Chutney
The rich and toasty taste of our Besar blend makes an ideal compliment for the pop of fresh cranberry flavor in this exotic twist on a holiday classic. The candied ginger and dried apricots round out the fruity flavors, and when you bring it all together, this chutney has a place well beyond the Thanksgiving table when the bounty of winter begins to fade. Go cranberries!
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Ingredients
Instructions
- Put olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the diced onions and saute for 5 minutes.
- Add the rest of the ingredients and, stirring frequently, cooking for about 15 minutes. Taste for seasoning. You might want to add more salt, vinegar or brown sugar.
- If you want a 'smoother' sauce, cook for another 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Let cool, then put into a covered container in the refrigerator. This will keep for about a week.
Poudre de Colombo Carrot Soup
A word of advice from a novice gardener: Carrots are much bigger than carrot seeds. Somehow, fifty-odd square feet of garden space doesn’t seem like that much when it’s being planted, but it can produce a surprising haul, most especially in the carrot department. Praise be that carrots are delicious, so their being excessively plentiful is a problem I’m thankful to have! This soup is hearty and delicious, made velvety by the soft puree of carrots, and from the toasted rice in the Poudre de Colombo curry. We’ve dressed it up a little with the prawns, but this soup can easily be made vegan by omitting them, and using red miso paste in favor of the Worcestershire powder. If you’re short on time, or you perhaps planned your garden space better than I did, and therefore the creative utilization of carrots is not a pressing issue for you, a can of pumpkin puree is an excellent substitution.
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Ingredients
Instructions
- Heat oil, and sauté onions, garlic, ginger, and carrots for five minutes
- Deglaze with wine, and reduce until pan is nearly dry
- Add stock, bay leaf, and 1 tablespoon of the curry, cover, and simmer until carrots are very tender, about 15 minutes.
- Remove bay leaf. In a food processer or blender, puree soup until smooth. Work in small batches for best- and safest- results, adding in the coconut milk to aid in the blending.
- Strain the processed soup through a wire mesh strainer in to a clean pot, and return the mixture to the stove over low heat.
- Add the remaining coconut milk, Worcestershire powder, sugar, and curry, 1 tablespoon at a time, until desired seasoning level is reached.
- Add lime juice, and adjust for salt.
- Rub prawns with paprika and cayenne, and grill or sear them.
- Ladle soup in to bowls, and garnish each with two prawns, a wedge of lime, and a few leaves of cilantro.
Chinese Five Spiced Apple Carrot Pie
Tender carrots are surprisingly sweet when baked in a brown sugar-y syrup, especially when united with perfect Washington apples and plump little raisin gems. The fresh ginger is such a classic pairing with the carrot, and is highlighted perfectly by the Star Anise in our Chinese Five Spice. The all-butter crust recipe I’ve included is a long-time standby of mine, and produces some of the flakiest and best pastry I’ve ever tasted. It will definitely be making an appearance at my Thanksgiving table this year!
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Ingredients
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees
- Pour boiling water and 1 tablespoon of the sherry over raisins, and allow to soak
- In a food processor, pulse flour, salt, and sugar several times to combine. Add butter. Pulse until mixture mostly resembles coarse meal, with few pea-size pieces remaining. This can be done without a food processer, using a pastry cutter, two knives, or your hands, but be wary of over working it.
- Sprinkle in cold water, beginning with 3 tablespoons. Pulse until dough is crumbly, but holds together when squeezed. Add water, 1 tablespoon at a time until this happens, but again, do not overprocess.
- Turn dough out onto a cutting board. Divide in to two equal portions, and form each portion in to 3/4-inch-thick disks. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour.
- While dough chills, assemble filling.Peel and core apples, and cut in to slices 1/8 of an inch thick. Cut carrots on the bias so they’re approximately the same size as the apple slices, but 1/16 of an inch thick.
- In a large bowl, toss apples, carrots, ginger, sugars, Lemon Crystal, Chinese Five Spice, salt, and flour until well incorporated.
- Drain raisins, and incorporate with other filling ingredients. Add remaining 2 tablespoons of sherry to filling mixture.
- Unwrap dough; place on a large floured cutting board. Roll dough to a 14-inch round. Wrap dough around rolling pin and carefully unroll over a 9-inch pie plate. Gently fit into bottom and up sides of plate. Using a fork, prick holes all around the dough to allow crust to vent and prevent shrinkage.
- Fill crust with filling, pressing gently to tamp down. Dot top of filling with softened butter.
- Roll out second dough disk to a ten inch round. Wrap around rolling pin, and drape over filled pie dish.
- Trim overhang, and crimp top and bottom crusts together.
- Bake pie at 425 for 25 minutes, then reduce heat to 375 for another 35 minutes, or until crust is golden, juices are bubbling, and apples and carrots are tender. Cool for four hours, and serve alone or with lightly sweetened whipped cream.
Harlot’s Harvest Pumpkin Ale
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As we all mourn the end of summer (say it ain’t so!) it’s easy to forget all the great things that fall has to offer: apple season, football season, sending those kids back to school, acorn squash, and of course pumpkins! There are a plethora of things one can do with a nice pumpkin, but one of my personal favorites is to brew beer. These days my first indication that fall is right around the corner is getting that call from our friends over at Pike Brewing looking for some spices for their seasonal pumpkin ale. A few weeks later, nothing softens the blow of the shorter days and cooler nights like getting a taste of the first batch. It seems like breweries are everywhere today, and as the seasons change the shelves are just packed with options for pumpkin beer, some far better than others. I have to say that this is hands down one of the very best I’ve tasted, and having a lovely lady at home who adores pumpkin beer, I’ve tasted almost every one we can find. This makes me especially proud to say that I had a hand in helping our Pike Place neighbors with such a great product.
Anyone who has brewed a spiced beer can tell you being able to filter out the spices is a crucial step in the process, and anyone who has tried to get nutmeg to a roughly “cracked” state can tell you it’s not real easy. After lots of experimenting, research, and trial-and-error, we finally came to the conclusion that the simplest method of cracking nutmeg is the most effective, using a good old-fashioned hammer. We even keep a specially designated (and sanitized!) hammer around our warehouse for just this occasion, and this time I seem to have gotten caught on camera.
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I could describe the Pike Brewing Harlot’s Harvest, but I couldn’t do nearly as good a job as their official press release. So as I wrap this up, I notice that it’s already five minutes past closing time on a Friday and time to open a Harlot’s Harvest for myself, since blogging is such thirsty work! So this weekend, if you’re putting in a tough shift on your own blog, or tailgating down at the Clink (go Hawks!), or however you choose to enjoy these last lingering days of summer, check out this great pumpkin offering from our friends at Pike Brewing.
